Friday, May 08, 2009

Soapbox?

In this day and age....(Ha ha...you thought I'd say "In this economy..." right? Fooled you...) So, in this economy...damn...day and age, music presenters have to pay special attention to quality programming. Now, I'm not just talking about programming quality music, but also about booking an interesting balance of compositions. If you're programming all music with blue-hairs in mind, you're probably just asking for trouble. Well, perhaps not trouble...maybe a nap instead.

There are plenty of great symphonies out there, but programming something like...hm...Haydn 104 and the Mozart Oboe Concerto is a huge mistake. Why? Yes, you have fewer players to pay (especially if you use a smaller orchestra), but who will be interested enough in the program to fork out the cash? Hell, I'm a performing musician and I sure as hell wouldn't give up my money for that. I'd rather see Star Trek.

Star Trek, that's right. That's exactly who we're competing with now. Our 60 year old patrons were born in 1949. These concert-goers came of age during the 60's and have a long relationship with the movies, television, and a shorter one with computers and the internet. Until we can provide an experience that can convince someone to skip Star Trek for the night and spend time with a few hundred people packed like sardines into a large hall, we're sunk.

That does NOT mean that every show needs to turn into an eye/ear candy free-for-all. It just means that some artistic planning committees need to get off their asses and earn their paychecks.